David Sanborn Quotes (43 Quotes)

I listen to some things that I've done, and I think they're pretty good, but that's not one of them.

I was playing with James Taylor at the time. James agreed to let me open for him, if I played with him also. So I got to be the opening act and I got a lot of exposure that way.

My whole contention, and my feeling in general about radio is, not just jazz radio, or smooth jazz radio, or whatever-radio in general is, I would like to see a little more variety within each one station.

The audience is interested in different stuff, not the same old, same old.

People who really understood the use of space and the fact that the sound and the silence are of equal weight and that what you're doing is really manipulating space. It's the same as a painting except that you're doing it aurally.

But hey, look, I became a musician because I love music.

I do this because I love it, and at the end of the day, the fact that I can make a living at all doing this, I'm grateful for.

We're living in an age now where that's the business model. And it's kind of hard to operate economically in that kind of climate because it stifles creativity.

There are some logistical and legal nightmares tied to that show, ... for me, the great thrill of doing that show was playing with people I've been a fan of.

I just kinda like playing. I don't necessarily go on tour to promote my albums. I'm on the road all the time. The fact that I have a new record is out is a coincidence.

I love working with these guys. But I certainly don't begrudge them when they want to go off and do their own stuff.

I'll just sit at the piano a lot an play like through different chord exercises and kind of just throwing my hands down on the piano from one chord to the next to see what happens.

Well I think that one of the things that I've learned over the years - some of it by experience and growth, and some of it just by the gradual physical falling away at certain things - that its really important to try to make less mean more.

I'm somebody that pretty much operates by instinct, and I kind of have to follow my instincts.

But certainly the idea of making records that had a mainstream appeal instrumentally was nothing that we invented.

While I believe my background makes me one of the most qualified people there is for this position, the convergence of a number of factors bring me to the conclusion that I cannot effectively serve my country, you, and the U.S. maritime industry.

I basically played the music that I felt all my life, and whatever label people put on it is kind of really none of my business.

But I never had any illusions at that time that it was going to be how I was going to make a living. I thought, well, I'll make a solo record, and it'll be fun.

And I think that in the case of these last few - the musicians I had - the reasons I used the same people I did on the two albums was I really felt that these guys were not only great players in their own right but really understood the concept of functioning as a band.

Well, I guess my unease with that is... I'm always a little uneasy with that phrase - smooth jazz, as opposed to what?

I don't see any way out of that because I think the audience as a whole is not being served and isn't getting excited about going out an buying CD's, and for that matter, going out and going to concerts.

Usually there's some kind of clue, whether it's a rhythmic foundation or sometimes its very abstract - just an emotional kind of landscape - and then you just kind of start someplace.

I think Norah Jones is a perfect example. Here's somebody who was playing the music she wanted to play and did it with some conviction, and it happened to be at a moment in time when there was a highly receptive audience for that kind of music.

Somebody like George Coleman has an approach and a pedagogical approach to teaching and can really kind of lay it out with exercises and demonstrations and different things that will improve your playing.

Well, I did all the pre-production and I did full demos of all the songs and then I took it into the studio and played it for all the guys and then we kind of took that as the template and did the album live very quickly.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave well enough alone. And that's a lifelong quest.

I'm trying to kind of keep my mind a blank for a while, and just see what filters in, and be non-specific about what I listen to.

And record companies are always quick to blame piracy and the Internet but I think that's only a small part of it. I think it's the corporate bottom line mentality.

The problem often times with trying to recreate some moment is that you kind of try to do part two or a sequel.

My name is on the thing, but the reality of it is, when I get up there on stage, I'm part of a band. I'm part of a unit. It's like a basketball team.

You're only as good as your last record.

I know guys that live in New York, but I never see them play because they're always out on the road. I run into them in Europe.

Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized and there's just no outlet, there's no venue for it, in terms of media.

My recollection of listening to radio was listening to a personality on the radio play music that he was connected with, and having a wide variety of music to play.

We were in Europe, and what's great about going to Europe, is you get a chance to hear a lot of really great music.

I sat in with them, and I remember their jaws dropped. I could actually play. I had some degree of sense of time.

I think the kind of chronology of the whole thing was that I was making records in the 70's and 80's that used pop production values, but instrumental music like improvising with RB kinds of song structures, but with improvisation in them, and pop production values.

When you have an acoustic bass in the ensemble it really changes the dynamic of the record because it kind of forces everybody to play with a greater degree of sensitivity and nuance because it just has a different kind of tone and spectrum than the electric bass.

They thought there was a market out there for instrumental music. They were trying to broaden their roster of artists. I got in on that.

I did full demos of all the songs at home, and then I took the demos into the studio and played them for everybody, and we then went ahead and did live versions.

The music is going to change anyway, whether or not the record companies get behind it or not. The music is there, and it's happening, and it's going on out there.

I think as different songs kind of cross your path from one source or another, I approach them with the idea of, can I get inside this song and really kind of inhabit it and bring something of myself into that song

No, it's unfair to the musicians and the people that work for the record labels, because they're scrambling to make their numbers every month or three months, or they're out of a job.